I’ve always been a firm believer that brand didn’t matter much and you should save your money by passing up the $6 Advil for the $2 Ibuprofen. When I was in medical school and residency, we learned generic names for drugs so as not to give too much credit to the drug manufacturer and recognize […]
Benzodiazepines are Not Good for Sleep
I’ve frequently prescribed benzodiazepines (benzos) such as Klonopin and Ativan for patients with anxiety. For some patients who are particularly anxious in the evenings, taking the medication can help relax them to the point of falling asleep easier. I usually tell them it’s not a good long term solution for sleep and the most obvious […]
What is Sleep Architecture?
You may have heard this term used before, it refers to the different stages that make up our sleep. Understanding these stages of sleep help scientists and clinicians target treatments for insomnia. Sleep is divided into two stages: Non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and Rapid eye movement (REM). NREM is further divided into four stages, numbered […]
Sleep is Essential
This may seem like an obvious statement, but it’s not. Our culture rewards hard work and often that comes at the expense of sleep. Millions of people do not get enough sleep each night and it can have serious consequences to our physcial and mental health. I’ll be doing a series of posts on sleep […]
Is it me or my illness?
Individuals with an disorder such as bipolar disorder can behave in ways that make them question whether their actions are part of their personality or part of their illness. For example, two common symptoms with bipolar disorder are hypersexuality and hyperreligiousity. However, defining what is “hyper” is not always an easy task. It can be very […]
How Long Until Antidepressants Work?
We in psychiatry have always said it took 3-4 weeks for an antidepressant to show a clinical effect. Those who showed improvement in the first 2 weeks were thought to be having a placebo effect. In the past 2 years, there have studies that have shown that patients can have a “real” response to antidpressants […]